Accused of impersonating police officer and stealing from flat

A man posing as a police officer rang the doorbell of a Ta' Xbiex apartment, asked to search the house and then proceeded to make off with cash and jewellery, a court heard yesterday.

"The bell rang and a tall, well-built man identified himself as a member of the Criminal Investigation Department and said he had instructions to search my flat.

"I let him in and allowed him to carry out the search and offered him a coffee. While he was searching my mother's bedroom, he asked me to add some sugar to the coffee and he remained in the room while I went to the kitchen.

"Then he went into my bedroom and asked me to add cool water to the coffee and again he remained there while I left the room.

"When he left the flat and I checked the two rooms I realised that the box where I kept my money and my mother's jewellery was missing," he said.

The man, whose name cannot be published by court order as are all the names of the people involved in this case, testified before Magistrate Joseph Cassar in the compilation of evidence against a 28-year-old man from Qormi.

The Qormi man is pleading not guilty to impersonating a police officer and stealing less than Lm1,000 worth of cash and gold from the Ta' Xbiex man's flat on October 11 at about 6.30 p.m.

He is also charged with relapsing.

The witness yesterday recognised the defendant as the man who had rung his doorbell and said he had previously never seen the man in his life.

He went on to explain that the things that had been stolen were a small box containing Lm150 and LD400, a gold necklace and four gold rings.

The witness said that during the search the defendant asked him where his mother was and when he told him she was in hospital the defendant called the family doctor to verify.

"Although I heard him speak to my mother's doctor on the phone, when I realised what had really happened I called the doctor myself and he told me that no one had phoned to ask about my mother," the witness said.

He explained that he had believed the man was a CID officer because he had used a tactic that made it credible. He also said that as soon as he realised what had happened he filed a police report .

Earlier, a police inspector explained that after the police report was filed, the victim's father told police that about two days before the burglary he had gone to visit his wife in hospital where he met a man hospitalised for a drug overdose.

The father said that the man had asked him many personal questions which he had answered because he did not think there could be any ulterior motive.

When his son described the robber to him, he realised that it was similar to the description of the man he had met in hospital two days earlier.

The inspector said he then checked who had been treated for overdose on that particular day.

Based on this information, the Ta' Xbiex man and his father where shown several photographs from which they recognised the defendant.

"I arrested the defendant and during questioning he admitted having been in a Ta' Xbiex flat on October 11 and he also admitted to holding a conversation with a man in hospital two days before.

"But the defendant claimed that he went into the flat because while he was walking in the area, a homosexual man invited him in and he went in," the inspector said.

The inspector said that after questioning the defendant asked to be taken to the hospital's detox centre.

When they arrived, he complained of a stomach pain and was held for observation. But that night he escaped from hospital.

The defendant was rearrested later on in Zabbar and arraigned.

The case continues.